A/N this time before the chapter.

- It's monday since almost thirty minutes so I thought why not posting? lol (was that coherent english?????)

- Please note that I screwed up the order of the chapters in posting the article one week too early. The order you're seeing now is the correct one so if the last thing you read is the article two weeks ago and may have been wondering where the update was - the update was there I just changed the order very quickly after posting lol. 

- There's a song used in the chapter: *click this link and find the jam of 2016*

September 25th, 2015

Yixing tried hard to recall the last time he had gone out on a weekday and came to the conclusion that this might have been somewhere in his first semester at university. Back then, he had partnered up with an exchange student somewhere from Europe and that guy had taken him out on a night through Wudaokou’s bars. He barely remembered anything, the only clear memory had been the headache and the sick feeling in his stomach the next day while crawling to his lecture. It hadn’t been too pleasant.

So when Yifan had called him up in the morning and said “We’re going out today.” Yixing had tried to convince him that he surely wouldn’t be tagging along on a Thursday when he had to be at the office at eight the next day, but Yifan’s answer was simply:

“Great, I’ll meet you at eight. Pregame at my house, be sure to dress up.”

“Your house is the Emperor’s Palace, Wu Yifan.”

“So?”

In front of his inner eye, Yixing could see Yifan blinking as if he couldn’t follow his words so he said:

“… nevermind.”

“Nice! See you later!”

A groan had escaped Yixing’s throat when he tossed his phone onto his office desk but a few hours later he indeed found himself at “Yifan’s house”, dressed up and showered and Yifan shoved a glass of whiskey into his hand as soon as he stepped over the doorway.

“Glad you came! Come in, come in!”

Yixing found out he wasn’t the only one Yifan had called up. The friends that he had already met on that one basketball game were already gathered plus three other guys that he hadn’t met before. He was glad when he saw Yili who was filling up her glass with whatever alcoholic beverage Yifan had put on the table in front of his couch.

“Sweetheart don’t go too hard already!” Her brother cried out while he pushed Yixing onto the couch next to her.

“Shut up, I could drink all of you under the table if I wanted!”

“Tsk, what has your cute sister learned in those American fraternities?” A guy named William said.

Yixing was sure this wasn’t his actual name, but he had gotten introduced to him under that name. He was the son of a big company mogul and one of the richest kids in China, so it was almost like a natural law he associated with Yifan. Yili took a huge gulp and put the glass down to shoot him an offended look.

“Get your vocabulary right, Willy! Female students join sororities, so maybe do some research before you try to drag me! You got a degree from Qinghua because your daddy payed the chairman! I’m actually graduating because I sit my down and do something for my education!”

The other guys hooted and William buried his head in shame.

“Okay, sorry Princess!”

“You better be.” She mumbled into her glass and took another sip.

Then she shifted her weight and turned to face Yixing, away from the guys who kept teasing William.

“I’m so glad you came,” she said and rolled her eyes, “Some of Yifan’s friends are the worst.”

“Why are you joining them? I can imagine it’s hard being the only girl…” Yixing responded and watched a guy named Dawei who was cracking a rather ist joke which made the other guys burst out into laughter.

“My girls are coming directly to the club,” was Yili’s answer and she held up her glass to clink it with Yixing’s, “Until then, I’ll just drink with you.”

“I’m really not a good drinker.” Yixing admitted and Yili waved his comment aside.

“Do you really think those losers are better?” She asked and pointed at Dawei whose head was already red. He looked awfully similar to a cooked lobster.

Yixing didn’t answer. Instead, he took another sip of the whiskey which tasted amazing, unfortunately. Yili giggled. After he had emptied the first glass, Yifan made sure to fix him another one and the journalist had the feeling that he wouldn’t be coming home sober tonight.

When they entered the club around three hours later, Yifan and his entourage got guided into the VIP area which had been reserved by some of Yifan’s little helpers earlier today. It was far away enough to not be bothered by the other guests (or, as Yixing had learned from William, “commonalty that we actually don’t want to associate with”) but still so close that the whole club knew within seconds who had arrived. Heads turned, phones got taken out of pockets and clutches to take photos and some girls immediately swarmed over to dance as close as possible to the prince, hoping he’d notice them shaking their asses. A look thrown at Yifan’s smirk told the journalist the prince enjoyed every second of it. Yixing tried to blend in between Dawei and William, hoping he’d not be appearing on any pictures that’d be uploaded in the next few days. It would be just too embarrassing if one of his coworkers, or worse - his boss, found out he was clubbing with Wu Yifan and his gang. He was sure the argument “I did it for research” wouldn’t work too well.

“Champagne!” Dawei cried against the beats of Iggy Azalea’s ‘Fancy’ which had been remixed and tormented to a weird House remix.

Yixing knew exactly why he didn’t like clubs that much. He was more of the guy who went to bars to have a nice chat with his friends while having one or two drinks, not the one to spazz around on a dancefloor and getting drunk (and also maybe high) only to find himself in the bed of an unknown stranger who surely had looked better in the darkness of the club than in the brightness of the next day. Unfortunately, that was exactly what Yifan and the Gang had had in mind. At least Yifan got hopelessly drunk and maybe only didn’t order some girls to come join them on the couch of the VIP Lounge because Yili was there with her friends.

It was about two in the morning when the music finally shifted from House to R’n’B, which meant Yixing had finally a chance of maybe at least knowing one or two songs. It seemed like the people around Yixing were taking a break, slurping (because what they did to their drinks could hardly be labeled as ‘sipping’ anymore) on their cocktails and longdrinks and some were smoking their nth cigarette. Yifan sat down next to Yixing.

“Are you having fun, darling?”

“Don’t even try to give me a pet name!” Yixing answered and swirled the icecubs in his drink around with his straw.

“Aiya, you’re such a buzzkill!” Yifan pouted and clinked his glass with Yixing’s.

“Yeah, that’s what I am.” The journalist retorted.

“No, but seriously… are you having fun?”

Yifan had a very hard time with his pronunciation and slurred the words dangerously. Something told Yixing that Yifan was on that fateful last drink that might be turning him into that raging scandal machine that he was famous for. He contemplated whether or not he should step in but then he remembered that Yili had tried to convince Yifan to have a glass of water half an hour ago. And, if he hadn’t listened to her, why should he listen to Yixing then?

“Well, I guess I’m alright. I don’t want to kill anyone yet, so that’s a good thing.”

“So you don’t have any fun.”

“I didn’t say that!”

Yifan clicked his tongue and poked Yixing’s cheek, just right where his dimple used to show when he smiled. Yixing wasn’t sure if that had been intended by the royal.

“But you are thinking it! You’d rather be anywhere else than here!”

“Well, the things I do for my work…”

There was a shadow flickering across Yifan’s face and right when he wanted to say something the beat of some song came on which seemed to trigger something in him. His eyes grew wide and he jumped up.

“YILI!! THIS IS OUR SONG!”

Yili nodded frantically while a woman started to sing something along the lines how her name wasn’t “an automatic atm, but baby it don’t matter”. The siblings sang dramatically along to it and Yixing thought that these two might have misunderstood something because the message didn’t seem to actually fit into their lifestyle. Until the drop came, the chorus started and the singer sang along to a sax – or maybe to another sort of wind instrument, Yixing had no idea about such things:

Born rich, born rich, baby I was born rich,

Driving a Benz and dripping in diamonds

Ay, I was born rich er! Ay, I was born rich er!

Especially the last line seemed to have woken up the rest of the crew and they chanted along to it as if it was something to be especially proud of. Yixing realized how out of place he actually was so he took another sip of his drink and decided to finally leave. He had seen enough of Yifan to write another 2K article and immediately regretted to have written some nice words about him in the first thing he had published. He asked himself if he had been high while writing this.

“Yixiiiiiiiiiing, come oooooooooooooon!”

The siblings had emerged and tried to bring Yixing on his feet to dance.

“No, no, no!” Yixing responded panicky while Yili and Yifan grabbed his hands and pulled at him.

“Do it for us!” Yili begged.

“No! I don’t dance!”

“Come ON just this one song!”

“NO! I’m not even one of your rich friends!”

“Well Mr. Zhang, you’re sitting at the cool kids’ table now, so you have to dance!” Yifan cried against the next verse that started to resound in the club.

“Someone has overdosed on ‘Mean Girls’ or something!” Yixing retorted but then he couldn’t bring up enough strength anymore to work against Yili’s and Yifan’s force and he finally got up.

‘Cause I know I got a heart made of millions,

In my mind I know I’m worth a couple trillion

Yifan was either really lame, or drunk, or a horrible combination of the two, but when that line came on, he changed the “I’m” to “You’re” and tapped Yixing’s chest.

“Yah! What is wrong with you?!” Yixing cried out but Yifan gave him a crooked drunk smile and Yili pinched Yixing’s cheek while the next chorus dropped.

Born rich, born rich, baby I was born rich,

Driving a Benz and dripping in diamonds

Ay, I was born rich er! Ay, I was born rich er!

At the end of the song Yixing actually really had brought himself to at least nod his head to the beat. No matter how horribly aware the song had gotten him of the different worlds in which Yifan and Yixing lived, it was still catchy as .

And just like that, Yixing actually started to dance with the princess and the prince in one of the most expensive clubs of Beijing. He decided he’d never tell anyone about that, not even his grandkids, if he’d ever have any.

His plans to get out of the club at two in the morning at the very latest got crushed when Yixing realized that it was already four and the establishment was closing. Shocked of himself he followed Yifan, Yili and the remaining pack of friends out of the building to the cars that were waiting for them in the garage. Of course, the prince didn’t just simply catch a taxi. He had to be brought home in his stupid Bentley. Before they could get into the car, Yili took Yixing aside.

“Yixing, can you do me a favor?”

She wasn’t that sober anymore, but far from being as wasted as her brother who argued with Dawei whether or not they should hit the same club tomorrow or not.

“Depends on what kind of favor.”

“I’m going home with Liling, she’s had a little too much and I don’t want her to be alone – she’s going through some sort of boy trouble right now,” the princess explained and nodded into the direction of her friend who had clenched her hands around her phone, eyes all watery and red while it looked like she thought of typing a message to someone, “Can you make sure to get Yifan home? If he goes alone, he might end up on the highway to Shanghai or something.”

Yixing agreed, mostly because it was very hard to say no to Yili, and additionally because he had left his wallet at Yifan’s place and needed to fetch it so he was able to catch a taxi from the palace to his home. It took him a while until he was finally sitting on the backseat of the Bentley next to Yifan who was still pumped from the music and the alcohol.

“Yixing, we cannot possibly go to bed now!” He cried out theatrically but Yixing didn’t have any of his attitude.

“Well, first of all there is not a ‘we’, second of all, it is four in the morning and I for one have to be at work in four hours again and I curse your stupid for dragging me here!”

“Baby, come on, you had fuuuuuuuun!”

Yifan scooted over and pinched Yixing’s thigh. Yixing slapped his hand away.

“Drop the pet names, I told you already!”

Yixing tried to ignore the thought that Yifan was extremely cute when he pouted and turned around to look out of the window. Even in China’s capital, the streets seemed to be asleep during these ungodly hours. Soon, that would be completely changed and they’d be filled with people again that would make their way to their jobs, fatigue still lingering on their faces. Without a warning, Yifan stretched out on the backseat and placed his head onto Yixing’s lap who got pulled out of his semi-poetic drunk thoughts.

“What are you doing?!” Yixing hissed.

“You’re actually the first guy I’m taking home after a club!”

“God you are such an idiot.”

Yifan grinned and puckered his lips to a kiss but Yixing just flicked Yifan’s forehead.

“Aiyo! Is this how you treat royalty?!” Yifan roared and Yixing responded:

“, please. Just because your name is ‘Wu’ I’m not going to pamper you.”

“You’re so lucky I’m too drunk to bother about your attitude!”

“Whatever.”

“Wow you really have no respect, Zhang Yixing!”

“Feels weird to be treated that way, right?” Yixing shot back and flicked Yifan’s forehead one more time.

Yifan whined and turned around to shield his face from another attack. When Yixing looked up he met the driver’s gaze who just raised an eyebrow in question before his attention snapped back to the street in front of him. For the rest of the ride, Yifan kept babbling absolute and utter nonsense that Yixing didn’t even pay real attention to until they arrived at their destination and Yixing dragged Yifan to his house which was harder than he thought. When he finally had maneuvered the prince into his bed chamber, it was almost five already. He was surely going to hate himself so much when he’d be getting to work. With a last curse on his tongue that he swallowed down, Yixing turned to Yifan who peeled off his blazer and fumbled with the buttons of his dress shirt.

“Okay. Good night. Try not to throw up in your sleep.” Yixing said and grabbed his wallet that he had tossed onto the living room table when he had arrived.

“Noooooooooooo, I didn’t say you should leave!” Yifan cried out and even though the alcohol gave him a hard time on his speech, he was still able to lift Yixing off his feet as if he weighed nothing.

“What are you DOING?! Let me go!!”

Yixing kicked his legs and maltreated Yifan’s back with his fists, but Yifan didn’t even flinch once. Without a word, Yixing was thrown onto Yifan’s bed and the prince followed a second after, crushing the journalist with his body weight.

“Get off me!!”

Yifan threw his impossible long legs around Yixing’s and held him tightly around his torso and Yixing let out a scream of frustration.

“Didn’t I say you’re the first guy I’m taking home with me?”

“Didn’t I say that you are an idiot?!”

“I like it when you’re angry!”

“ you, Wu Yifan! Let me go!”

As hard as it was to admit, Yixing was almost as badly hammered as the other one and it was just so hard to struggle himself free. And the mattress was just so comfortable, it was like it was pulling him down on purpose to embrace him.

“Sshhhh honey… it’s okay…”

Yifan started to run his fingers through Yixing’s hair and the movement was so soothing that Yixing slowly but surely stopped his attempt to escape Yifan’s claws. He sighed heavily and said:

“If I ask nicely, will you let me go?”

“Hmmmmmmnooooo…”

The journalist lifted his head only to see that Yifan had his eyes already closed. The rhythm he was massaging Yixing’s scalp with slowed down and eventually came to a halt. Yixing’s head sunk back onto the pillow and he let out the breath he had been holding. It could be worse – Yifan could’ve actually attempted to have with him but instead he just fell asleep atop of the younger. That was his chance to finally get out of here and go home, but Yifan’s body weight was still pressing him down and he was just so tired and powerless, getting up seemed to be an impossible task. The alcohol rushing through his system only added to his physical state and he decided to close his eyes for five minutes, just to rest a little, before he really would be leaving.

The annoying buzzing of the phone in his pocket woke him up. When Yixing threw his eyes open he needed a second to understand what was going on – he was still on Yifan’s bed, in the exact same position, with Yifan’s feet tangled in his who was still sleeping like a baby. The light of day was flooding the room and Yixing realized he had indeed fallen asleep. He groaned and fumbled his phone out of his pocket. Of course. It was ten in the morning. And his boss was calling. He sent another curse into Yifan’s direction and answered the phone.

“Where are you?” Mrs. Wang asked and didn’t even bother to greet him.

“I’m… um…”

“Obviously not at your office desk!”

She wasn’t yelling, but the icy tone in her voice was almost worse. Maybe he was still drunk from last night, but he decided to just tell the truth.

“I’m at Wu Yifan’s place.”

There was silence at the other end of the line and Yixing imagined his boss frowning and curling her upper lip, like she used to do when she was in deep thought over something that didn’t make sense to her.

“Why?”

“He invited me to go out. I kind of crashed here. That wasn’t really planned. I’ll be at the office immediately.”

“No! No! It’s fine. Stay there! It’s okay! Just make sure the next article is on my desk by next Friday!”

“Umm… okay?”

She babbled something about “Good job!” and how she wished to get more intimate portraits about Yifan (why in the world was she so fond of the word ‘intimate’ it only made Yixing cringe) and then she just hung up without even saying goodbye. Yixing stared at his phone and finally felt the headache emerging, the payback for downing one or two drinks too many and not getting enough sleep. Next to him, Yifan suddenly moved, but he did not seem to be waking up. Yixing slowly untangled himself, carefully moving so he wouldn’t wake Yifan up, and congratulated himself when he was finally able to stand up from the bed. He felt horrible, but at least he was free now. His first instinct was to leave, go home and take a shower, but when he was already throwing his coat over his shoulders and was on his way to the door, his eyes locked with Yifan’s bookshelf. He had always wondered what kind of books Yifan would read or if they were mere decoration to trick people into thinking he was reading. Yixing’s curiosity won over his need to get out of his clothes that reeked of sweat and alcohol and he put his coat back over the sofa. He checked on Yifan one more time and when he was sure that he was still as out as a light he hovered over to the shelf and took a look over the assortment of books.

The first thing that caught Yixing’s eye were the Harry Potter books whose spines looked like they had been cracked more than one time. Yixing took the first part of the series in his hands and flipped through it – the paper had turned yellow over the time and there were a lot of stains that looked like ice cream, milkshake or juice. On the first page, Yifan had written “This book belongs to Wu Yifan” and judging from the way the characters looked, Yifan had still been a kid. Yixing smiled when the image of a younger Wu Yifan popped up in his head, sitting in the imperial garden on a hot summer day with an ice cream cone in one hand and the book in the other, into the story J.K. Rowling had written down so many years ago. Yixing also found a children’s version of Journey to the West, which had found the same fate as the Harry Potter books, bended a million times, stained with traces of Yifan’s own carelessness while eating and reading simultaneously.

The children’s books had made way for adult books and Yixing was surprised to find a lot of stuff he had read himself – he found not only a few books of contemporary Chinese writers but also copies of modern classics like To Kill A Mockingbird, Animal Farm or In Cold Blood. He looked over to Yifan once again and couldn’t quite imagine him reading these books and actually liking them. When he pulled out one novel and opened a random page, Yixing realized that Yifan hadn’t just read the books. He had marked them and commented on some passages, something Yixing might have done when he had had to read stories for his university assignments, but never for fun. Yifan had even scribbled down his general opinions on the books, what he liked and what he didn’t like and even if he was up for a reread or not. Especially the novel by Truman Capote seemed to have a lot of lines that Yifan was fond of very much, since they weren’t only highlighted but also underlined or marked with an exclamation mark.

As long as you live, there’s always something waiting; and even if it’s bad, and you know it’s bad, what can you do? You can’t stop living.

Yixing vividly remembered reading this novel. He remembered buying it in a bookstore at Wangfujing and how he had read the whole book in one go on a rainy Sunday afternoon after the purchase. He had loved it and had admired Capote’s phrasing but seeing the sentences Yifan had picked out gave him second thoughts about if he even had read the novel at all.

You want not to give a damn, to exist without responsibility, without faith or friends or warmth.

The journalist felt like an intruder as he flipped the pages and found more phrases that somehow seemed to give more away than any lame dinner, any random text message or any annoying conversation in the last few weeks he had had with the prince about his character.

You exist in a half-world suspended between two superstructures, one self-expression and the other self-destruction. You are strong, but there is a flaw in your strength, and unless you can learn how to control it the flaw will prove stronger than your strength and defeat you.

Yifan woke up with a groan and before Yixing could close the book and put it back unnoticed, the other one asked:

“You want to lend it?”

“I! Umm…!” Yixing stammered as if he had just gotten caught by his mother stealing some cookies out of the jar in the kitchen.

Yifan buried his face in his hands and let out a sigh, mumbling something about how much his head hurt. Yixing slowly walked over to the bed, still clinging to the book.

“I never thought you read books…” He admitted as he sat down next to the taller one.

“What? Do you think I can’t read?”

“I just didn’t think you’d sit down and follow a story printed on some paper, that’s all,” Yixing answered and quoted another marked phrase.

“I’ve tried to believe, but I don’t, I can’t, and there’s no use pretending – wow, am I getting a full psychologic insight on the mind of the great Wu Yifan?”

“Or maybe I’m just appreciating great literature when I read it.” Yifan blocked and rolled over.

He took the book out of Yixing’s hands and tossed it onto the bedside table before he threw his monstrous limbs around the younger’s body again. Then his head crashed back down and he buried his face in the curve of Yixing’s neck.

“Get your hands off me immediately!” Yixing hissed and pinched the back of the hand that was placed on his chest – so much for thinking Yifan had something like a soul, or common sense or any other trait that might make him a decent human being.

“Ouch!” Yifan whined and pulled his hand back, “Come on, you know what they say: Being a little gay is totally okay.”

Yixing was caught off guard and couldn’t react for a second and it felt like his soul had left his body at the mere stupidity that had just burst out of Yifan’s mouth.

“You are such an…!!” Yixing started, and shot up while a fit of anger flashed through his body.

“Wow! What is wrong with you?” Yifan asked and rolled over onto his back before he sat up and watched Yixing hover over to his sofa to fetch his coat and wallet.

“With me? Seriously?! I’d rather ask what is wrong with you, you jerk!” Yixing shot back.

“Yixing, I really don’t understand… mind explaining to me what is going on with you?” Yifan said with an honest dumbfounded look on his face and Yixing bristled with anger.

“Okay, you really bother to know? I am gay and you don’t get to treat my uality as a joke, even if you’re the prince of this god damn country!”

Yifan’s face fell in surprise as Yixing had finished his statement. There was a moment of silence in which Yixing waited for a snarky and stupid comment, but instead Yifan said:

“Wow! Sorry! I didn’t know man!”

He got up and massaged his temples with his index fingers while he made his way towards Yixing who was ready to just turn around and leave, but somehow he stayed put and shot the older one angry looks, hoping they would only increase the pain in the other’s head.

“I apologize.” Yifan simply said and looked straight at Yixing who was startled for a few seconds.

“Wait. You… what?”

“Are you deaf? I said I apologize. You’re right, that’s not something someone should joke about.”

“Who are you and what have you done to Wu Yifan?” Yixing asked and the comment made Yifan chuckle.

“WOW you really think I’m not capable of seeing I was wrong?”

“To be honest? No.”

Yifan clicked his tongue and walked over to the minibar next to his TV and tossed Yixing a bottle of water.

“Aspirin’s in the bathroom. I’m going to order breakfast, what do you want?”

“I was about to leave, Yifan,” Yixing said who was kind of weirded out by the other’s nice behavior.

“Naaaah, you’re not, let me order some breakfast.” Yifan said and smiled when Yixing gave in and threw his coat back over the couch to go to the bathroom and get the painkillers - he didn't really know why he was staying, maybe it was the journalist in him that sensed a story lurking behind every corner. In this case, it may have been lurking behind Yifan's behavior.

“Why’d you apologize?” Yixing asked after he had gotten the medicine and they waited on Yifan’s bed for the breakfast to arrive.

Yixing asked himself why they never seemed to be able to move to the couch when they were together. Just to make sure, he stayed as far away from Yifan as possible this time.

“I like hanging around with you.” The prince answered and shrugged his shoulders as if there were no more words needed.

“I’m nothing like your friends. Or like you.” Yixing stated while he played around with the tag of the water bottle which had gotten loose.

Yifan snorted and said:

“I don’t even like most of these punks we went out with yesterday.”

“Huh?!”

“Oh Yixing, my sweet summer child,” Yifan said and rolled over his bed to poke Yixing’s nose (which Yixing would’ve punished at once if he hadn’t been that baffled), “Most of these people don’t even like me. It’s not about who you like. It’s about who you’re being seen with.”

“So you basically have no real friends.”

“Aiya, don’t put it that way! I like William, for example. He’s cool. But Dawei? Man he’s a douchebag.  He’s like this annoying person in high school that forces themselves into a group of friends. We accept him because we feel sorry for him.”

Yixing didn’t say anything, because he didn’t know how to respond to that. He was sensing that real friendships were rare in the circle of Beijing’s high society, but hearing Yifan putting it like this made him almost feel sorry for the prince. He asked himself if Yifan actually had a real friend that wasn’t related to him by blood. He couldn’t give a definite answer to that. Yifan grinned and placed his head on Yixing’s lap without a warning, like he had done in the car on their ride back here. Yixing swore to himself that from this day on, he’d be trying to stay out of Yifan’s reach within an arm length.

“Don’t look so sad Yixing. I’ve got you now.”

“What exactly makes you think that we are friends?” Yixing asked with a raised eyebrow, because he really did not consider him and the other one friends or acquaintances in any kind of way.

Yixing was the guy who wrote cheesy articles about Yifan to be able to pay his bills at the end of the month. There was literally no other reason for Yixing to spend time with Yifan. When November 6th would be finally over, and Yixing longed for the day his life would be back to normal again, he’d most likely never see Yifan again.

“You’re rejecting me, huh?”

“I do this because you obviously mistake me for one of your model girlfriends. I’m still the guy who writes about you.”

The door opened and one of the maids came in with breakfast. Yixing didn’t dare to ask where she came from and how she had managed to bring coffee, tea, fruit, scrambled eggs and a whole lot of other stuff in such a short amount of time over to Yifan’s place, so he bit his tongue and watched her setting the table, just like Yifan had told her when she had come in. She threw a startled look over to the bed where Yifan’s head was still placed in Yixing’s lap, but then hurried to get everything on the table before the eggs would be cold. When she had left Yifan finally bothered to sit up.

“That’s true, Xingie. But if we’re being honest, I was never really serious about them. So you’re one level above them already!”

Anyone else would have been flattered, but Yixing just rolled his eyes as he got up and sat down at the table.

“You are impossible, Wu Yifan.”

“People tend to tell me that.”